The invention relates to an inclined elevator for man on cycle or on other rolling vehicles. The elevator is installed in inclined streets, pedestrian tracks or separate tracks specially designed for the purpose.
For health, environmental and economical reasons modern society as well as individuals wish to transfer the transport of people away from automobiles and to public transportation such as buses, trains or cycles, such as bicycles
By different kinds of actions and/or technical means the use of cycles can be stimulated. The disadvantages and obstacles of cycling can be removed or deminished. In most modern cities, all over the world, a wide net of separate cycle tracks are being built in addition to a lot of other actions to improve the security and the general conditions of the cyclists.
Lately, the bicycle has gone through a technical development for example making it more suitable on rough ground or hilly terrain. This has led to increased popularity of cycling in towns and cities with a lot of hills. It is obvious however, that long and steep hills still represent a main hindrance for most of the cyclists. Saying this, we do not have in mind cyclists who are doing serious training. What really counts, transport wise is cycling to and from work, shopping, social visits etc., where the purpose for the cycling is transportation without to much physical effort.
Many towns and cities are characterized by terraced landscape where the major places of work and business are at the lower landscape level and where people live at the higher landscape level. Use of a cycle between work and home is therefore dependent upon traversing one or more steep hills between terraced landscape.
It is known that vertical elevators exist for the transport of people and goods where there is also room for a cycle. The cycle may also be transported on a rolling pavement. Ordinary elevators and rolling pavements are normally constructed for indoor use, and such installations for outdoor use present dominating and expensive encroachments on the landscape and the street environment.
It is also possible to adapt an ordinary gondola or cableway making it possible to transport cycles. These cableways are normally suspended on masts above the ground but may also be pulled at tracks on ground level, such as cable cans. These are normally installations that involve thorough and expensive encroachments in the terrain and street environment and often represent obstructions for vehicle traffic. Elevators and cableways are characterized by carrying the full weight of both cycle and cyclist.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,039 give a description of a hook device between a ski lift cable and a cycle having an automatic and manual release. This device is meant to pull a cyclist in the drag lifts trace in the summer season. The normal construction of a drag lift with wire suspended on masts at various heights above the ground, for practical and environmental reasons, will not be suitable for urban regions, for example in streets with heavy traffic.